The Wandering Jew — Volume 10 eBook

“And how do I deserve such marks of confidence?”
asked Mother Bunch, more and more surprised.

“You deserve it by the delicacy of your heart,
by the steadiness of your character,” answered
Adrienne, with some hesitation; “then—­you
are a woman—­and I am certain you will understand
what I suffer, and pity me.”

“Pity you, lady?” said the other, whose
astonishment continued to increase. “You,
a great lady, and so much envied—­I, so humble
and despised, pity you?”

“Tell me, my poor friend,” resumed Adrienne,
after some moments of silence, “are not the
worst griefs those which we dare not avow to any one,
for fear of raillery and contempt? How can we
venture to ask interest or pity, for sufferings that
we hardly dare avow to ourselves, because they make
us blush?”

The sewing-girl could hardly believe what she heard.
Had her benefactress felt, like her, the effects of
an unfortunate passion, she could not have held any
other language. But the sempstress could not admit
such a supposition; so, attributing to some other
cause the sorrows of Adrienne, she answered mournfully,
whilst she thought of her own fatal love for Agricola,
“Oh! yes, lady. A secret grief, of which
we are ashamed, must be frightful—­very
frightful!”

“But then what happiness to meet, not only a
heart noble enough to inspire complete confidence,
but one which has itself been tried by a thousand
sorrows, and is capable of affording you pity, support
and counsel!—­Tell me, my dear child,”
added Mdlle. de Cardoville, as she looked attentively
at Mother Bunch, “if you were weighed down by
one of those sorrows, at which one blushes, would
you not be happy, very happy, to find a kindred soul,
to whom you might entrust your griefs, and half relieve
them by entire and merited confidence?”

For the first time in her life, Mother Bunch regarded
Mdlle. de Cardoville with a feeling of suspicion and
sadness.

The last words of the young lady seemed to her full
of meaning “Doubtless, she knows my secret,”
said Mother Bunch to herself; “doubtless, my
journal has fallen into her hands.—­She knows
my love for Agricola, or at least suspects it.
What she has been saying to me is intended to provoke
my confidence, and to assure herself if she has been
rightly informed.”

These thoughts excited in the workgirl’s mind
no bitter or ungrateful feeling towards her benefactress;
but the heart of the unfortunate girl was so delicately
susceptible on the subject of her fatal passion, that,
in spite of her deep and tender affection for Mdlle.
de Cardoville, she suffered cruelly at the thought
of Adrienne’s being mistress of her secret.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Moreconfessions.

The fancy, at first so painful, that Mdlle. de Cardoville
was informed of her love for Agricola was soon exchanged
in the hunchbacks heart, thanks to the generous instincts
of that rare and excellent creature, for a touching
regret, which showed all her attachment and veneration
for Adrienne.